Holly Pershing, a seventh-grade science teacher in Winneconne, right, looks at a fossil with her students during a recent field trip to the Weis Earth Science Museum at UW-Fox Valley.

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While on maternity leave in early 2011, German teacher Connie Rosenbaum got a notice from her principal that, due to budget cuts, she could only return to work in the Oshkosh school district as a part-time employee while a more senior teacher took over her previous classroom.

Rosenbaum felt rejected by a district for which she had dedicated 10 years of her life, so she packed up and turned her eyes to the north, where the Appleton school district gave her a full-time job teaching German along with a $9,000 boost in pay.